How often do tribunals grant Section 20ZA dispensation?
In 2,237 First-tier Tribunal service charge decisions from 2019–2026 where Section 20ZA dispensation was in issue, the tribunal granted it (fully or conditionally) in 97.1% of cases. (n=2,237, as of 15 August 2026)
Section 20ZA (Landlord and Tenant Act 1985) lets a landlord ask the tribunal to dispense with the Section 20 consultation requirements for major works or qualifying long-term agreements. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Daejan v Benson, dispensation is usually granted unless the leaseholders can show real prejudice from the failure to consult — and the numbers below bear that out.
About these figures: Outcomes reflect disputes that reached the First-tier Tribunal, not portfolio-wide quality. Small samples are noisy; every figure links to the underlying decisions.
Section 20ZA dispensation outcomes across the corpus
| Outcome | Decisions |
|---|---|
| Not sought | 1,996 |
| Granted | 1,832 |
| Conditional | 341 |
| Refused | 52 |
| Partial | 12 |
| Not stated | 11 |
Methodology
These statistics are computed from the published decisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in service charge cases (case types LSC, LIS and LDC). Each decision is parsed into a structured record — the sums challenged, the sums allowed, the outcome per cost head, and the orders made — and the aggregates on this page are recomputed nightly in plain arithmetic from those records. No figure on this page is estimated, modelled or hand-typed; each carries its sample size. Current corpus: 4,244 decisions covering 18,031 individually disputed items, last updated 15 August 2026.
Read this before quoting: Outcomes reflect disputes that reached the First-tier Tribunal, not portfolio-wide quality. Small samples are noisy; every figure links to the underlying decisions.